Bureaucracy vs. Design

by Gabrielle Kennedy for Design.nl

Recently, famed Dutch trendspotter Lidewij Edelkoort (Li) shocked the design community when she issued an open letter of resignation from the Designhuis and Eindhoven, in which she blamed the vision of the city’s governance for her departure.

In this article for Design.nl, Gabriella Kennedy speaks with designers, members of the local government, educators and other affected parties about their reactions to the news and the conflict between bureaucracy and autonomous design.

Opinions vary greatly. Ger Peeters, Eindhoven City Director says that the changes being made to Eindoven’s bureaucratic structure are ‘about working out how everything can combine to strengthen the region... it’s as simple as that. Nothing else about autonomous design is going to change.’

Local designer Kiki van Eijk, on the other hand disagrees saying, ‘I think a lot is going to change. If Li is no longer active down here then that means we will have lost a very key figure in the international design scene.’

Whatever particular opinions may be, it is an unfortunate situation that is representative of the continuous conflict between bureaucracy and creativity.